Where Angels Dare
by bootler
Summary: Xander is sent to Cleveland after some apocalyptic rumours have started to circulate. Post Chosen,Not Fade Away Spoilers as such.
1. Chapter 1

**Summary: **Xander is sent to Cleveland after some apocalyptic rumours have started to circulate

**Warnings: **Whole lot of swearing and violence don't forget the violence

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, at all, not even a little, most certainly not BtVS and its characters.

**Authors Note: **Feedback appreciated as always.

**Spoilers: **Post Chosen BtVS Post Not Fade Away AtS

The noise in the cavern was deafening, a small group of what appeared to be people were firing automatic weapons towards a much larger group who most certainly weren't people in fact they shared a major resemblance to big lizards, who were throwing fireballs back at them. Whilst the rounds the people were firing didn't seem to be having a major effect they were slowing down the group, however the fireballs were doing more than slowing down the people they hit. As one man stood up from behind the rock he was using as cover he was immediately struck by a fireball which blew a hole straight through him, giving him time to speak one word "Bollocks" before falling over dead.

Upon seeing this another man began to take in the scene in its entirety, his comrades were either dead, dieing or well that was pretty much it. Turning to the man next to him he spoke quickly "Gabriel, we're fucked", this caused his friend to look back at him and reply "You certainly don't mince words do you Luc you'd better get out here, I'll try to hold them here while you escape". Upon hearing this Luc extended his middle finger and angrily said "You can swivel on that if you think I'm leaving you here and besides what are you going to hold them back _with_ a strong argument if you hadn't noticed our weapons not so much with the effectiveness, so unless you're hiding some dynamite up your shirt i don..." seeing the grin breaking out on his friends face he paused, "you have haven't you, you actually have got some dynamite stuck up their you stupid prick!",

"Of course I have, when have I let you down" this caused Luc to raise both of his eyebrows pointedly at his friend, and Gabriel had the good sense to look a bit sheepish but stood his ground "Get out of here you pillock the mission is too important and anyway I think one of these rejects from Walking with Dinosaurs is trying to sneak up on us" as he was saying this he removed a stick of dynamite from under his T-shirt lit the end and threw it over his head "Get going you stubborn bastard and I'll see you in heaven"

"Like I'm ever going to get in there" replied Luc with a grin he tossed his gun to Gabriel and continued "hope you can use that you old fool, and I'll see ya when I see ya" with that he took off a was running for the entrance to the cavern several of the Lizard creatures turned to follow when Gabriel stepped out from behind the rock and began throwing lit sticks of dynamite in all directions scattering the creatures, when he ran out he opened fire with his guns but it wasn't enough and as Luc reached the daylight he turned just in time to his friend blown apart.

* * *

Xander was angry, not at anyone in particular, no he was angry at everyone in particular. Two days ago the group at the Cleveland hellmouth had sent out a message asking for assistance due to some apocalyptic murmurings that were occurring. As he had just come off assignment in Africa it had been 'decided' that he should be the one to go, so instead of sleeping solidly for about three weeks in his apartment in London he was freezing his ass off patrolling in Cleveland, and nothing was happening. As if that wasn't enough he had to share a room with Andrew, for God's sake what had he done in a previous life to deserve this crap, had he molested children, been a serial killer, talked in the theatre, what! All he knew was that his life sucked.

What he didn't know was that his life was about to enter a whole new level of shit, but if he did he probably wouldn't have been surprised. He was having that kind of a day.

He was on the return leg of one of the most uneventful patrols of his long history of fighting evil, now this part hadn't bothered him particularly as he had no desire to see his own grisly death as of yet, no the part that was really getting to him was the trainee slayers that had come out with him, the only one that he recognised was Vi and she was the only one who wasn't pissing him off. Vi was bringing up the rear and between him and her there were Vicki, Becca and Joan and they were all staring at him like he was god or something, it had been like that since he had got there, it appeared Andrew and been makin' like Shakespeare and telling some stories about him and the other original members of the scooby gang, for the 56th time that evening Xander reminded himself to have 'words' with the guy when he got back. Faith of course thought it was unbelievably funny and of course Giles was too busy actually doing this to notice.

As they walked up to the front door Xander thanked his lucky stars and prayed there would be news that would let him leave, let him go back to Africa where everything was simple, find slayer, talk to slayer (sometimes quite difficult as Xander had all the linguistic skills of a small twig), send slayer to England and repeat. Here it was complicated and involved human interaction beyond waving your arms around and talking slowly, and Xander was no longer talkative joker guy, that guy had disappeared with Sunnyhell when it fell into the sinkhole.

"At least here he didn't have to keep fixing the window." just as he said this a man came bursting _through_ said window followed by by some big lizards whose arms appeared to be on fire. "I just had to say it didn't I, oh yes good move there" Xander continued muttering as he hefted his ax and moved into the lounge.


	2. Chapter 2

**Disclaimer: **See chapter one.

The first thoughts that went through Luc's head as he burst through the window were "I really hope this is the right house, cause if its not my face is gonna be so red at least right until Mr. "I had a walk on part in Jurassic park" rips it off". As he fell to the floor he quickly rolled and looked for anything to use as a weapon. He quickly realised he was in the right house as he didn't think many houses in Cleveland were ready equipped with weapon chests.

"Bingo," he muttered under his breath before grabbing the nearest sword and turning to face the Lizard people. When he turned round he saw that most of the creatures had already been subdued by what appeared to be teenage girls, "Definitely, the right house"

It was at this moment he was struck by a fireball in the shoulder knocking him to the ground, this caused one of the creatures to leap at him and he had just enough time to get the sword up and felt it rip through the things chest. "That was for Gabriel you prick" he breathed and then passed out.

* * *

Xander quickly looked around the room to assess the damage, some of the Slayers had minor burns but other than that all seemed good. The dead demons didn't appear to be disappearing so he told some of the uninjured slayers to start sorting them out to be buried later and told another to get the first aid kit. Then he started to look for the guy that had come through the window with the demons, he had just spotted him when Faith walked in "Damn Boytoy what did you do?" she said with a grin. Xander just looked back at her and then walked over to where the body of the man was lying, "I didn't do anything, but I do intend to find out what happened". He looked over to the slayer who was nearest the first aid kit Joanne he thought her name was and signalled her to throw him the box, and he began dressing the burn on his shoulder. "Who do you think he is?" He turned and found Faith standing behind him, he turned back to the man "I don't know but he doesn't seem to badly banged up, I've finished dressing the burn so help me move him" at this Faith looked at him oddly "move him where?" Xander looked back at Faith and back at the man then spoke "I don't know this guy, don't know his name, what he wants or why he just jumped our window. In fact the only thing I know is that he just led a load of demons to our front door, so until he wakes up and tells me why, he gets handcuffed to the radiator," at this she shrugged and picked up the man's legs "You get his arms,".

* * *

Giles knew something had happened the moment he walked through the door. The fact that all the young slayers were looking innocent, or at least trying to was a big hint. The fact there was a pile of demonic corpses in the kitchen and the window in the living room was missing were also clues, but it was when he moved into said room that he spotted the final piece of evidence, "Would someone please explain to me why there is a topless man shackled to the radiator".

After a few seconds Xander's head emerged from around the corner "Hey G-man, we had an interesting evening",  
"So I see" the expression on Giles face was approaching miffed maybe even vexed, but he refused to get angry he simply stared at Xander waiting for the explanation and the stare seemed to carry the threat about what would happen if it wasn't a good one. Xander appeared to understand as he quickly looked away and then spoke, "Well I'd just gotten in from patrol, which was pretty uneventful by the way, and then in comes shirtless over there, we had to take that off to bandage him in case you're wondering, anyway he comes through the window followed by the demons you saw in the kitchen" he quickly looked at Giles to make sure he had seen them and then continued "the girls promptly mobbed them and took them down, but one still managed to get to him but he'd grabbed a sword and managed to get it before passing out, and that pretty much covers it".

Giles looked at Xander for a moment "Are you waiting for him to come around then?"

With that Xander breathed out realising there was to be no angry glasses rubbing and then spoke "Yeah, I want to find out why I have to replace the window again", at this Giles turned away and began to walk towards the stairs, he grew a hint of a smile and almost pitied the man almost, windows are expensive after all.

* * *

Faith had snuck out the back for a quick smoke, she still wasn't used to spending so much time around the little Slayers she got on okay with the ones who had made it out of Sunnydale Vi and Rona were fine but the rest were like hyperactive chipmunks, with superpowers which made it an experience she could tell you. The one thing that was really messing with her though was Harris she just couldn't get a handle on him, she had barely said a word to him back in Sunnydale before it blew, she'd made her peace with most of the original SunnyD crew she was on the level with B and Red these days, Giles was pretty good with her and they had spent a lot of time together since he'd come to Cleveland but Harris she just didn't know where she stood and that was getting to her and she didn't like it. Before she could think on it more she heard a voice calling her in seemed like their guest was waking up. 


	3. Chapter 3

**Disclaimer:** See Chapter 1

Luc knew something was wrong the moment he woke up, well it wasn't exactly hard to figure out he was handcuffed to something, felt like a radiator, he was also topless and had a bandage on his shoulder and several angry people were walking towards him and some had weapons, very sharp, very pointy weapons.

"Oh shit"

* * *

Xander heard the man swear under his breath and had to suppress a grin, at least the guy wasn't an idiot although he had just jumped into a house full of slayers who hadn't had any action it what seemed like weeks so him supposed that was debatable. When he arrived to stand over the guy he saw that both Giles and Faith had also come back, he decided to keep his mouth shut and let the G-man take the lead.

* * *

Luc saw the three leaders of the group standing over him but was careful not to ignore the other girls who were sitting around nonchalantly which when your holding a sword is quite an achievement. There was the old bloke looking quite the bookish type, there was the black haired, well saying she wasn't bad looking was a laughable understatement and finally there was a one-eyed guy that he was fairly certain he'd seen when he'd jumped through the window. It was book guy who spoke first, "I have as you must expect many questions the first being Who are you and Why are you here?".

Well that is fairly to the point and Luc barely paused before answering "My name is Luc, as to why I am here I wanted to speak to whoever is in charge of the branch of the Watchers Council that operates in this area, only me and my friends got a little sidetracked by the funky lizard dudes". At this one-eye spoke up "What friends and how do you know about the Watchers?"

"Little by product of the sidetrack my friends couldn't make it, as to the Watchers me and mine of always known of your kind though you did take us and everyone else by surprise by changing the rules, that was a pretty good move by the way" at that Luc began to smile "If you knew how much that messed with the guy downstairs plans you'd go all tingly with satisfaction".

At this the three looked a bit taken aback and it was again one-eye who spoke "You don't seem all that broken up about your friends"

"They should be okay as long as nothing untoward happens to them on the trip back home though Gabriel gonna be smarting for a while".

This caused the girl to speak for the first time "Okay you've lost me 'back home' what's that all about?"

"Yeah, they should be back in heaven by now although they won't be able to get back onto this plane for a while not until they get their strength back anyway, that kinda sucks as it means I'm without backup"

"I'm sorry heaven"

"Oh yeah didn't I mention I'm an Angel"

At this the old guy started polishing his glasses and the other two went jaw to the floor, it was the old fogey who composed himself first, "I've never read of an Angel called Luc"

At this Luc smiled broadly "Oh you wouldn't it's just my nickname, my full name is Lucifer".

This time they all went jaw to the floor.

* * *

Xander was speechless and his only thoughts were "this is new". It was Giles who broke the silence first "So you are claiming to be Lucifer, the Morningstar, the fallen angel, Satan and of course last but not least The Devil" by the end Giles's voice had risen an octave and he was speaking through clenched teeth. In response the guy just smiled back and said "Yes to the first three but the last two they are something else entirely" he paused for a moment and then continued "What you know of the Devil is severely limited, you understand how the world works the balance between good and evil. Therefore for everything on one side there must be an equal on the other, such is Satan he is the Antithesis of God unbelievably powerful and unbelievably foul. You have faced the First Evil, that was simply a facet of him created by a force that was called into existence by this creature".

At this Giles appeared slightly mollified but still looked like he was trying to figure something out, Faith looked pissed and Xander looked confused but his brain had moved on now, he was thinking "Shit, shit, shit we are so fucked,". In time Giles spoke again "You said before you were fallen if you are then what was your crime if it was not betraying God?"

The man, Lucifer Xander reminded himself seemed to rest back and smiled slightly "I was wondering if you'd remember that, the reason I was cast out now there's a story" at that he seemed to smile even more before launching into it, "You see as angels we are supposed to be above all the things that make humans tick we are supposed to be pure, but there was a girl and what a girl she was hot I'll tell you that a real fittie, prime piece of ass, God's gift to man, I mean seriously she had a nice…" "Ok we understand she was good looking move on" an exasperated Faith broke in, this caused the guy( Angel angel not guy) to smile even more, "Any way so one day I finally gave into my urgings and I fly on down to the garden and make with the sinful act, now I'm not quite sure how but the Lord found out I suppose being an omniscient being has to count for something, and so he cast me out of heaven and doomed me to walk the Earth forever or at least till I die, then I go to hell and let me tell you I am not going to like being the first ever Angel they had as a inmate" he shivered a little and then rested back against the radiator.

Everyone was silent for a moment and then Giles muttered something to himself under his breath it sounded like "garden" to Xander which didn't really make sense, then the G-man smiled and spoke "When you said Gods gift to man you weren't speaking figuratively were you," At that Lucifer smiled and shook his head "You pillock you mean you actually slept with Eve!" and at that he smiled a little more and nodded his head. And Xander Felt his jaw drop again.


	4. Chapter 4

**Disclaimer:** See Chapter 1

Giles looked at the creature that was chained to the radiator in front of him, he thought creature as if he was telling anything near the truth he was a far from human as a vampire, albeit in the other direction but for the moment he remained uncertain, it was certainly a unbelievable tale but there was something in the almost brazen way in which he had told it that made Giles believe or at least want to. For the moment however he would err on the side of caution and seek a way to verify 'Luc's' claims, how to go about that was something that evaded him for the moment, so for a while he would have to leave the questioning, he wondered if he should phone Willow in Brazil to see if she knew anyway to learn if this creature spoke this truth. At this moment he was broken from his reverie by Luc speaking.

"Can I assume that since you are the ones questioning me that you are in charge here?"

Giles saw no need to withhold that piece of non-information "Yes, my name is Rupert Giles and I am the head Watcher of the Cleveland branch of the New Watchers Council."

This caused Xander to mutter under his breath "Try only Watcher," this in turn caused Giles to glare at Xander, when will that boy see his own potential he also saw Faith move to speak but she closed her mouth without saying anything. He looked back at Luc as he spoke again "I believe you said you wanted to make contact with us, do you wish our help?" at this Luc looked thoughtful "Yes and no, we wanted to give you some information and see if you could help us, but since there is no us just me it appears more that I will be helping you", he paused for a moment and then continued "the information is what's important, now your blow against the First coupled with you friend Angel's attack on the Senior Partner's of The Wolf, The Ram and The Hart," Giles noticed the distaste in Luc's voice as he spoke of the ensouled vampire it had turned out that he was wrong about Angel but he held little regret, maybe Angel had finally earned his absolution and he found himself wishing he had, Giles shook his head at that before returning his attention to the Angel at hand. "together knocked the 'Big Fucker Downstairs' back a couple of steps but it also made him step up his plans for The Apocalypse and I mean that for real as in the end of the fuckin' world and all that Jazz, the first step is right here in Cleveland where intends to open the Hellmouth and step onto this plane where he will be made flesh, and believe me when I say that if that happens this world is well and truly screwed."

* * *

Faith looked down at the guy who despite being handcuffed to a radiator was looking remarkably composed and tried to digest what she was being told, she didn't particularly like it. This would be the first apocalypse that she would face as the senior slayer as B was off living the dream or something in Rome. At least she had Jeeves to watch her back and guide her but still this sounded big and bad.

She looked and studied Harris who was standing to the side he looked about as shocked as she was, she took a second to look properly at the man she hadn't really spoken to since before she took her little walk on the wild side. He was definitely a man now not the boy she had known, he looked weathered and was tanned except around his left eye which she could see as his patch had slipped slightly in the fight. It was then that he shifted and turned to look at her so she quickly turned back to Angel dude (that was gonna get confusing) she really needed to get her shit together about him.

She switched her attention back to the matter at hand and opened her mouth but was cut off by Xander, "What kind of time scale are we talking about here weeks, months what?"

At that Luc's smile dropped a little "I don't know exactly but we're talking on the short side here coupla weeks tops probably less". At this everyone looked a bit worried at started looking around, it was then that Harris spoke again showing Faith how much he had changed.

* * *

"Is there anything useful you can tell us, like who is working for this guy cause I don't recognise these lizards and I've seen quite a lot in the past decade?", even as he spoke Xander's mind was going a million miles a minute trying to process all the information that had been thrown at him in the past couple of minutes. He wasn't happy for sure, an unproven source of information, a new place to work that he didn't know at all well, hell the only thing going for him right now was he had a lot of slayer backup but most were new and untested and the rest were ones he had barely known in Sunnydale and of course Faith.

How could he forget Faith, Faith who'd been his first, Faith who'd betrayed them all, Faith who'd tried to kill him. He didn't trust her even after Sunnydale even though he should he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Not that it mattered he had to work with her and Giles seemed to think she was okay and since Giles was about the only guy whose opinion he gave the slightest shit about that would have to do.

It was when he reached this particular cognitive stop point that he realised that the Luc guy had answered, " The lizard guys are twisted souls that the devil has managed to force out of the upper reaches of Hell, beyond that not a lot else is working for him yet, cause the big D doesn't trust most things with half a brain in case they try to over throw him but he's got enough of them to be beyond troubling".

"So how do we stop him?" Xander probed hoping for the easy answer that he knew wasn't coming.

"With difficulty, he plans to pierce the protective seals on the Hellmouth using some kind of weapon and blow it wide open"

Crap thought Xander "And how is going to do that?" with this Luc rolled his eyes and gave a slight snort before sarcastically replying "God, don't want much do you" he grew serious before continuing "I don't know what he's got or how he's going to use it, that why we were coming here for help researching, the Watchers are renowned for having one of the largest libraries on the earth." At this Xander winced and looked towards Giles who had already taken off his glasses to start polish them which left Xander to reply, "The Council had one of the largest libraries it was destroyed by an agent of the First" at this Luc looked for the first time truly shocked and finally said "Well bollocks"

Giles then spoke "Quite, Xander if you could release our guest I believe this conversation would best be continued in my office," Xander moved to do just that all the while thinking just how royally fucked they all were.


End file.
